The invention relates to a method for operating a starting system for a car and to a starting system for a car and to a car.
Cars are increasingly being equipped with starting systems in which starting an engine of the car no longer requires a key to be inserted into an ignition lock and turned. Instead, there are frequently solutions in which a portable code transmitter in the form of a transponder now just needs to be carried by the driver of the car, with the driver now only needing to operate a starting device, which usually has a start/stop button, in order to start the engine of the car.
After the vehicle is opened and the driver sits in the driver's seat and the start/stop button of the normally always activated starting device is operated, a monitoring device usually checks whether the portable code transmitter is inside the car, particularly inside the passenger compartment of the car. In particular, this involves the monitoring device transmitting a request signal that the portable code transmitter receives if it is inside the monitoring region and the latter for its part transmitting a response signal that the monitoring device receives, as a result of which the latter detects that the portable code transmitter is actually inside the monitoring region, that is to say inside the passenger compartment of the car. As soon as the starting system has detected that the portable code transmitter is inside the car, the engine is started.
In conventional starting systems, the monitoring device is usually always active, and hence even when the vehicle is locked and there is no passenger in the passenger compartment, which means that in principle it is constantly transmitting the request signal in order to check whether the code transmitter may be inside the car. There are also starting systems in which the monitoring device transmits the request signal only as soon as the start/stop button has been operated. In both cases, there is an increased risk of theft of a car that is equipped with such a starting system. After an unauthorized party has gained unauthorized access to the car, for example by having broken the door lock, it can manipulate the request signal transmitted by the monitoring device, as a result of which the car can be started and hence also stolen even without the presence of a key or portable code transmitter.